The Las Vegas homebuilding industry picked up the pace in recent months as sales volume climbed and developers laid out more construction plans.
Builders sold 543 new homes in Southern Nevada in March, bringing the year’s first-quarter total to 1,378 deals.
That’s up 8 percent from the same three-month period in 2014, according to a report out today from Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research.
The median sales price of March’s closings was $312,204, up 9 percent year-over-year.
Local builders, meanwhile, pulled 781 new-home permits last month, giving the first quarter a tally of 1,849, up 34 percent from the same time last year.
Dennis Smith, president of the research firm, said the housing industry “is improving from its ‘OK’ performance” most of last year, when sales volume plunged 18 percent from 2013, prices were volatile and construction plans tapered off.
The uptick in sales this year is “not a huge change,” given Las Vegas’ usual volatility, but it’s “still a positive, upward movement,” Smith said in the report.
Although permits soared from a year ago, Smith said, he is “not convinced the current pace will continue for all of 2015,” and builders probably agree.
“‘Cautiously optimistic’ is an overused cliché, but in our opinion, it is very appropriate in this scenario,” he said.